Foster Parents – Dawn Coppock

A Foster Child’s Relationship to Foster Parents Acquires More Legal Significance As Time Passes

Angi Newsome — Mon, 13 May 2024 15:06:05 +0000

At 6 months, the foster child’s relationship with foster parents becomes a “significant relationship,” so it has weight when compared with other nonparental, pre-removal relationships.
At 9 months, the foster parents don’t just get notice of hearings regarding the child but an increased right to participate regarding the child’s best interest.
At 12 months, foster parents get preference to adopt should the child become available for adoption.

At 6 months the foster child’s relationship
with foster parents becomes a “significant relationship,” so it has weight when compared with other nonparental pre-removal relationships.

Foster children are sometimes moved from stable foster families to the homes of people associated with their birth family. At initial removal, keeping children in their broader community is well established as a benefit to the child. But after the child has established a healthy parental attachment with a foster family moving the child, for example, to their mother’s boyfriend’s sister’s home or even a grandparent may be damaging to the child.

To support quick placements within the child’s family or community, the Department must focus on locating kinship foster care during at least the first 30 days after removal. T.C.A. § 37-2-414(b)(2). If the child is quickly placed with a safe kinship home, the child gains the benefits of a community placement and is spared disruption of a healthy attachment with the foster parents.

The child welfare system focuses primarily on pre-removal relationships and places little value on the child’s attachments formed post-removal. Kids, of course, form parental attachments with loving caregivers without regard to the classifications of people applied by the child welfare system. A legislative fix offers a way to value the healthy attachments of foster children to foster parents.

Effective July 1, 2023, T.C.A. § 37-2-403 (b)(4) A foster parent or kinship caregiver whom a child has resided with for six (6) months or more is a person who has a “significant relationship” with the child. Absent evidence to the contrary, the Department, foster care advisory review board, or court may presume that continuation of the child’s placement with, or adoption by, the child’s current caregivers is in the child’s best interest.

At 9 months the foster parents don’t just get
notice of hearings and reviews about the
child but have an increased right to
participate on the issue of the child’s best interest.

Foster parents have long been entitled to prompt notice of all court hearings about the child. After 9 months, they are also permitted to appear and actively participate in hearings and reviews to present evidence regarding the child’s best interest. T.C.A. § 37-2-415(a)(17) and 37-2-416(a) and (b).

At 12 months foster parents
get preference to adopt should
the child become
available for adoption.

T.C.A. § 36-1-115(g)(1) and echoed with a bit less strength at 37-2-415(a)(20).

This is the long-standing foster parent preference to adopt children who have been in their care for one year.

Lawyers and judges are just learning about these new rights. The judge may not be in the habit of offering foster parents a chance to speak at hearings for a while. Foster parents may need to stand up and respectfully ask to be recognized. Foster parents can share a copy of this post with your social worker, GAL, Department lawyer, or court staff as necessary to be recognized. At their own expense, foster parents may also hire an attorney to help them be heard.

Look for a blog post soon about the rumor that foster parents can’t consult lawyers. Spoiler alert, it is fake news.

To have Dawn’s newsy blog post delivered
directly to your email
subscribe at https://dawncoppock.com/legal-topics-attorneys-courts/

Go to https://dawncoppock.com/dcs-foster-parents/ for other useful information about foster parent adoption in Tennessee.

Adoption Assistance for Drug-Exposed Infants

Angi Newsome — Thu, 04 Apr 2024 15:19:15 +0000

Adoption assistance is a program to assist adoptive families of special needs children. The program is state-administered with the majority of funding from the federal government and a state contribution as well. The benefits are usually a monthly stipend and health insurance, which may be secondary where private insurance is available. There are some technical requirements for adoption assistance concerning the exact needs of the child and the financial situation of the birth parent at removal. However, there is no “means test” for the adoptive parents, which means the adoptive parents’ income and assets are not considered for the eligibility determination.

A broad overview of navigating adoption assistance is found at https://dawncoppock.com/adoption-assistance-for-foster-parents/

But here are 3 important things to know about adoption assistance for newborns who were exposed to drugs before birth.

Adoption assistance is never available in a private adoption, where the child is placed directly from the birth parent to the adoptive parent(s) with no agency, state or private, in between.
Private agencies may apply for adoption assistance on behalf of private agency clients, but the state of Tennessee administers those applications and doesn’t make it easy. Still, at least this path can work, and it is particularly effective for children premature or sick enough to qualify for the Social Security program SSI. If you want to try this path, you will need a lawyer familiar with this process very early in the adoption planning.
Children who are in the guardianship of the state of Tennessee and who were exposed to drugs before birth are almost always qualified for at least deferred adoption assistance. Deferred adoption assistance usually means that the door is left open for the adoptive parents to apply for adoption assistance when the child manifests problems that require treatment. It may or may not also include payment of legal fees and even access to health insurance. But it does not include a cash stipend.

But if the child is “Receiving Services” at the time adoption assistance is calculated the child should be eligible for the stipend and the other benefits. So, the key for pre-adoptive parents or drug-exposed children is for the child to be receiving services when assistance is determined. Services are things like therapy with TEIS, regular supervision of a medical condition by a doctor, physical, speech, feeding, or occupational therapy. Sometimes, foster parents will take a break from therapy or fail to promptly follow up on a medical referral thinking that they will proceed after the adoption is finalized. Avoiding any interruption in the child’s services is a far better approach if the foster parents don’t want to undermine the child’s eligibility for adoption assistance.

— Dawn Coppock — March 2024

Finalization – Six Months or Three Months?

Angi Newsome — Wed, 27 Mar 2024 01:35:52 +0000

Question: I understand that the waiting period for adoption, the time the child must live with the prospective adoptive family before the adoption can be finalized, has been reduced from 6 months to 3 months, correct?

Answer: Not exactly. The waiting period is still 6 months but the judge in the case CAN, but does not have to, reduce the wait to 3 months. Judges are expected to be most open to reducing the waiting period in newborn adoptions. When older children are new in a home at least 6 months for the child and family to adjust to one another and for problems to arise and be resolved is usually recommended by social workers and is good common sense in most cases. Judges know this and often will not reduce the waiting period for children older than newborns. Also, when an agency has guardianship of the child, as in DCS or private agency adoptions, the agency’s consent is required. Agencies typically will not consent until they feel the family has had sufficient time to settle in together. Regardless of the waiting period, when a child is in full guardianship of an agency, an adoption cannot be finalized until the agency is ready to consent.

A Voice in Court for Foster Parents

Angi Newsome — Thu, 13 Jul 2023 17:00:28 +0000

Effective July 1, 2023

Big addition to foster parent’s right to participate in hearings.

T.C.A. § 37-2-415 (a)(17) – (Public Chapter 263)
For some time, the court has been required to promptly notify foster parents of all court hearings regarding their foster child. They are permitted to attend “at the discretion of the court” which means unless the judge doesn’t want them to.

The new provision says, “A foster parent who has served as the physical placement of the child for a period of nine (9) months or more shall be permitted to appear and actively participate in any permanency hearing or dispositional hearing for the child with regard to the best interest of the child.”

Now there is a right to “actively participate”.

T.C.A. § 37-2-416 – (Public Chapter 263)

(a) “The department shall notify the foster parents, if any, or any prospective adoptive parent or relative providing care for the child in state custody with notice of any review or hearing to be held with respect to the child. The foster parents, if any, of such a child and any prospective adoptive parent or relative providing care for the child shall be provided with notice of the right to be heard in any review or hearing to be held with respect to the child, except that this section shall not be construed to require that any foster parent, prospective adoptive parent, or relative providing care for the child who has served as the physical placement for the child for a period of fewer than nine (9) continuous months be made a party to such review or hearing solely on the basis of such notice and right to be heard.
(b) Any foster parent who has served as the physical placement for the child for a period of nine (9) or more continuous months shall be permitted to appear for the sole purpose of presenting evidence with regard to the best interests of the child.
(c) At each hearing, the court shall determine whether the department has complied with this section.”

After the child is in the foster parents’ care for 9 months the foster parents have a right to present best interest evidence.

Judges are just learning about these new rights. As of this post, these changes are not yet in the online version of the Code. For a while, the judge may not call on you. You may need to stand up and respectfully ask to be recognized. You can share a copy of this post with your social worker, GAL, Department lawyer or court staff as necessary to be recognized.